To facilitate debris management, procedures for inventorying
downed woody material are presented. Instructions show how to
estimate weights and volumes of downed woody material, fuel depth,
and duff depth. Using the planar intersect technique, downed
material is inventoried by 0- to 0.25-inch, 0.25- to 1-inch,
and 1- to 3-inch diameter classes; and by 1-inch classes for
sound and rotten pieces over 3 inches. The method is rapid and
easy to use and can be applied to naturally fallen debris and
to slash. The method involves counting downed woody pieces that
intersect vertical sampling planes and measuring the diameters
of pieces larger than 3 inches in diameter. The piece counts
and diameters permit calculation of tons per acre.